Movies

Every once in awhile I make Hal watch movies that he should see so when they come up, he can say he's seen them. We did American Beauty, Capote, etc. etc. etc. This is hard for him, as he like shiny happy movies (which is totally fine!) so his tastes tend to go toward Pixar/other fun movies. (I used to review movies and tended to be a little snotty about my movies when we first met, but I've calmed down a lot.)

Now, he did like American Beauty and Capote, and he's done well with many of the movies I've suggested he watch. (He did have to watch something happy after he watched Capote, but I can totally see where that came from.)

However, last night I may have pushed the envelope a bit.

He mentioned being interested in seeing Magnolia the other day. As I used to own it (one of my friends has stolen my VHS copy of it, which I couldn't watch anyway because we don't have a VHS player currently), I was interested to hear this. So we rented it tonight. I warned him it was long and considered it good training for Benjamin Button, which I hope to see sometime soon.

Turns out, while watching the opening half hour of Magnolia (which, mind you, is 3 hours long), Hal kept questioning where Edward Norton was. I couldn't figure out why he thought Edward Norton was in Magnolia. It seems that he somehow confused Magnolia with Fight Club? We aren't sure how this happened -- but Fight Club is also on the list of things he should see for cultural references.

So poor Hal got 3 hours of Magnolia, and I got one confused face looking at me at the end of the movie.

Then, because I am overzealous, I played him part of the score for Requiem for a Dream, which was featured as part of a list on ListVerse the other day (great site -- check it out at http://www.listverse.com/) I wanted him to listen to it because I had mentioned before how chilling it is to me. Then I had to explain to him why the cacophony he was experiencing made sense within the context of the movie. Which led me to show him the trailer. Which was plenty.

I think we'll be on a strict Disney and comedy diet for the next six months after this.

EDITED TO ADD: My cousin wrote on Hal's wall on Facebook last night:

"OK Hal...that's a deduction of two man points. It would be more except you're a newlywed. But no more chick flicks."

Apparently Stan thought I made him watch Steel Magnolias.